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This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics is related to “the darkest secrets in the universe.”
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Tuesday that the winners of the award are the BritishRoger Penrose, the German Reinhard genzel and the american Andrea Ghez for his findings on black holes.
Penrose gets half the prize for finding that black hole formation is a direct consequence of the general theory of relativity by Albert Einstein.
The other half of the award is shared by Genzel and Ghez “for the discovery of a supermassive object at the center of our galaxy”, the Milky Way.
From left right: Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel, and Andrea Ghez.
A breakthrough beyond Einstein
Black holes are areas of space where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape from it.
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“The history of black holes dates back to the end of the 18th century. Then, through the theory of Einstein’s relativityWe had the tools to really describe these objects, “said Ulf Danielsson, a member of the Nobel Committee.
But the mathematics of these objects was incredibly complicated to understand, and many researchers believed that they were nothing more than mathematical artifacts that existed only on paper. It took researchers several decades to realize that they could exist in the real world.
In fact, even Einstein didn’t think that black holes could really exist.
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However, 10 years after Einstein’s death, British theorist Roger Penrose proved its existence and described its properties.
“That’s what Roger Penrose did,” Danielsson added. “He understood the math, introduced new tools, and then was able to show that this is a process that can naturally be expected to happen: a star collapses and becomes a black hole.”
Penrose said, “laid the theoretical foundations to say: these objects exist. You can expect to find them if you go looking for them. “
Black holes direct the movements of stars
Using the orbits of the stars as a guide, Genzel and Ghez came up with the most compelling evidence yet for the existence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
Image source, Science Photo Library
The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way is known as Sagittarius A * (Sgr A *).
Although we cannot see the black hole, it is possible to establish its properties by observing how its colossal gravity direct the movements of the surrounding stars.
They discovered that this huge object, known as Sagittarius A * (Sgr A *), makes the stars that orbit it move at amazing speeds.
Genzel and Ghez used the world’s largest telescopes to peer through the huge clouds of interstellar gas at the center of the Milky Way.
Awards week
The week of the Nobel Prizes began this Monday with the Medicine Prize, which this year fell to the researchers Michael Houghton, Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus.
On Wednesday it will be the turn of Chemistry, Thursday Literature, Friday that of Peace and next Monday that of Economics.
All the awards are given on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the founder, Alfred Nobel, in parallel events in Stockholm, for scientists, Literature and Economics, while the Peace is held in Oslo.
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